Category: Asia
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The Kerala floods
The Kerala floods When it comes to site-specific installations the Bangladeshi artist Marzia Farhana has done a fine job with her work for the KMB 2018. The August 2018 floods in parts of Kerala had caused, apart from loss of lives, a lot of destruction of homes, crops and the natural environment. Farhana has made…
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Tasmania in Kerala
Tasmania in Kerala Among the artists invited to take part in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale there are always some that feel the need to make a site-specific installation. For this year’s Biennale the Aboriginal artist Julie Gough has filled a room with rather loosely connected elements that build on her experience as a visitor to Kochi…
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KMB 2018
KMB 2018 The curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 has given the exhibition the motto “Possibilities for a non-alienated life”. I think that many of the selected artists are indeed actively trying through their work to keep, repair or establish meaningful close links between life, art and the world. The artists that figured in my…
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Art in nature
Art in nature Lying down on the ground is what Sonia Khurana does in her performances. Lying down on a busy town square for example. In a video at the KMB2018 one can take note of her on-going lying down project. I was actually more intrigued by another part of her installation: the cut-out shapes…
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Nature in art
Nature in art The art works of Priya Ravish Mehra shown at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 speak of life. The fibres of paper and cloth, the colours used, they all come from nature. As do the twigs, roots, leaves and other elements that she has integrated in her sheets and hangings. Their collective, overall impression…
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Spare-ribs
Spare-ribs That’s what I thought they were. Relics of the skeleton of a gigantic prehistoric animal. Casually placed against a wall. Or are they remains of the skeletons of palm leaves? Plant and animal world (including us) are of the same nature after all. Photo of the week: Margao, Goa, India 2012
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I know where I’m going!
I know where I’m going! A deserted beach. A flag on a pole in the wind. A woman walks with unfaltering steps straight to the point. What point? Where? Why? “I know where I’m going!” says her body. For us who only have one image and not the whole film, it will remain a mystery.…
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Sand fish
Sand fish A little crab made a holeon Dona Paula beach.The sea came to have a look,came forward and then withdrew again.The little crab, the sand and the seaplayed together.They made a lovely fish. What shall we have for dinner today? Photo of the week: Beach at Dona Paula, Goa, India 20016
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Gyantse Kumbum
Gyantse Kumbum The biggest and best preserved pyramidal multi-chapel monument of the kind in Tibet. It has more than 70 – dark – chapels inside, almost all decorated with murals and statues. We can look at the kumbum as a three-dimensional mandala: when you project the whole building on its ground-plan, it represents a visual…
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Gyantse Dzong
Gyantse Dzong The castle (dzong) of Gyantse of which the oldest parts date back to the 14th century, is towering above the city on the high clifs of the mountain. At the time Newari artists came from Nepal for carrying out the decoration of the buildings inside the fortress with murals that would influence later…
